So off we go to york, AGAIN, to play Yorvik in the first game of the group stage of the West Yorkshire Christian Trophy cup. Feeling a bit of a buzz, since the last time we played this fixture, just a few weeks ago, we won 5-2.
There are 11 of us, most notably Matt Lewney who having started with us this season has not played the same position twice. For this game, he's in goal!
After we kick off it seems apparent that this is not quite the same team we beat 5-2. The ball is spending most of it's time in the air, and we seem unable to get under it, or certainly unable to bring it under control in any real sense of the word. There's something else that seems strange too and, though this may not be the most appropriate place to discuss this (so therefore it will only get the briefest mention), it was a significant factor in the unfolding of the game. I'm going to say it... the ref; his decisions seem panicked, inconsistent and ill advised.
Moving on. We win a free kick, and we score, and we celebrate!!! The goal however, does not stand since Tom Winstanley, the scorer was off-side (we know that rule - right?).
Skip forward a short while and the joy of travelling this far North to win a game has faded since we find ourselves 2-0 down. And we seem apparently unable to do anything about it; we're still struggling for possession. Then comes a little relief in the form of the half-time whistle.
Having had a little time to reflect, we carry on this season in the way things have gone thus far: by playing far better in the second half.
The game is changed, we actually compete for, and win, balls. We think about how we use possession. We make better challenges, runs and passes of the ball. We give them someone to play against, at last!
While they do have several chances to finish the game off with one-on-one situations, they are unable to convert any, sometimes because of an ineptitute of the striker, other times because of brave, strong and relentless goalkeeping from Matt.
Eventually our break comes, Andy Amoss scores and sets up a tense, hard fought and very competetive remaining 10 minutes. And though bruises and exhaustion mount, the scoreline doesn't.
Yorvik Blades 2-1 Wakefield Baptist Church.
Tuesday 30 October 2007
League Cup - Chapel Allerton Celtic (Home) 20.10.07
The next round of the league cup (that's right, we're still in it!) and we're to face premiership team Chapel A. Sadly, due to some sort of, or perhaps several, communication cock-ups, we get kitted up and head out to the pitch, only to stand there alone because Chapel A are a no-show!
A little bit of re-planning later and those of our number who are due to be working in the afternoon get off, while a group remain for a little bit of training and then get to the Redbeck for the biggest breakfast you've seen. While eating we fantasise about a by into the quater-finals.
Wakefield Baptist Church 0-8 Redbeck.
Ps. This fixture will be replayed, probably on 10th November.
A little bit of re-planning later and those of our number who are due to be working in the afternoon get off, while a group remain for a little bit of training and then get to the Redbeck for the biggest breakfast you've seen. While eating we fantasise about a by into the quater-finals.
Wakefield Baptist Church 0-8 Redbeck.
Ps. This fixture will be replayed, probably on 10th November.
Monday 22 October 2007
League Cup - AS Normanton (Home) 13.10.07
October 13th, two weeks without a game, now we're back to face a team new to the league, a team without a win, Richard Thornton back in goal, this game has to be ours...right?
Right! In less then 10 minutes we go 1-0 up from an Andy Amoss free-kick. Simple, refined, understated; victory is calmly assured, as predicted.
Wrong!
1-1: It seems they want to play too.
2-1 to them: This is not right.
3-1: What the heck is going on?
4-1: We're being whipped by the whipping boys! Even the team who can't win are beating us, oh no! ...We're the whipping boys!
Time for some real drama. Let's take this back.
4-2: James Clarke
4-3: Tom Jones
4-4: James Walker and time for a break I think; half-time.
The second half is slower, but no less tense, we control the tempo, we have got ourselves back in charge. Knowing this is a cup game is knowing that the next goal is most likely a winner, unless it opens floodgates of goals, a la first half.
GOAL!!!
An exact replica of his first free-kick form Andy Amoss (Danny Hayton looks on enviously, and curses his new limp). 5-4 to us and about 20 minutes to go.
Now all we have to do is make sure there are no defensive mistakes whatsoever. You can almost feel the intensity of concentration we all feel as we go in for challenges, track our runners and intercept balls. We do not want to take this to extra time and penalties, we have to win this in the first 90 min.
Finally comes some respite, James Clarke has scored his 2nd and this gives us some breathing room. With 7 minutes to go there's no way they can score 2 goals as well, not after the game we've had...right?
Right.
Wakefield Baptist Church 6-4 AS Normanton
Right! In less then 10 minutes we go 1-0 up from an Andy Amoss free-kick. Simple, refined, understated; victory is calmly assured, as predicted.
Wrong!
1-1: It seems they want to play too.
2-1 to them: This is not right.
3-1: What the heck is going on?
4-1: We're being whipped by the whipping boys! Even the team who can't win are beating us, oh no! ...We're the whipping boys!
Time for some real drama. Let's take this back.
4-2: James Clarke
4-3: Tom Jones
4-4: James Walker and time for a break I think; half-time.
The second half is slower, but no less tense, we control the tempo, we have got ourselves back in charge. Knowing this is a cup game is knowing that the next goal is most likely a winner, unless it opens floodgates of goals, a la first half.
GOAL!!!
An exact replica of his first free-kick form Andy Amoss (Danny Hayton looks on enviously, and curses his new limp). 5-4 to us and about 20 minutes to go.
Now all we have to do is make sure there are no defensive mistakes whatsoever. You can almost feel the intensity of concentration we all feel as we go in for challenges, track our runners and intercept balls. We do not want to take this to extra time and penalties, we have to win this in the first 90 min.
Finally comes some respite, James Clarke has scored his 2nd and this gives us some breathing room. With 7 minutes to go there's no way they can score 2 goals as well, not after the game we've had...right?
Right.
Wakefield Baptist Church 6-4 AS Normanton
Rotherham Elim (Home) 29.09.07
At last, our first home game on our new ground, and it's only nearly October! September 29th to be precise. Going into this game we can see that if we beat Rotherham here, despite being so early on in the season it actually puts us in a good position for promotion. This is mainly due to who our rivals are and the size of our league; with so few teams in, 3 points become incredibly valuable.
This game however, could not have gone much worse:
- With a still injured Mark Robinson and an unavailable Richard Thornton, we move to a third choice goalkeeper Tom Jones. He turns up fit enough to play - just not in goal on account of his sprained wrist - so we move to a fourth choice, James Clarke.
- Some of the tetchiest displays of behaviour I've ever seen from WBCFC.
- In front Church folk who have turned out to see us. (Many thanks and apologies to you)
- ...Though it was a very disappointing turn out, and brings the level of support into question.
- Not only was behaviour off, but the football was too: the game finished 6-2 in favour of our visitors.
- When I say finished, i mean it in its loosest sense, since the final whistle never blew. In the 85th/86th minute skipper Danny Hayton dislocated his knee and the rest of the game was unplayable. An ambulance, gas and air, screaming and blood drained faces ensued.
Needless to say, the pre-arranged 'sandwiches and such' at West Yorkshire Sports Club was not as fun as it was designed to be.
Wakefield Baptist Church 2-6 Rotherham Elim
This game however, could not have gone much worse:
- With a still injured Mark Robinson and an unavailable Richard Thornton, we move to a third choice goalkeeper Tom Jones. He turns up fit enough to play - just not in goal on account of his sprained wrist - so we move to a fourth choice, James Clarke.
- Some of the tetchiest displays of behaviour I've ever seen from WBCFC.
- In front Church folk who have turned out to see us. (Many thanks and apologies to you)
- ...Though it was a very disappointing turn out, and brings the level of support into question.
- Not only was behaviour off, but the football was too: the game finished 6-2 in favour of our visitors.
- When I say finished, i mean it in its loosest sense, since the final whistle never blew. In the 85th/86th minute skipper Danny Hayton dislocated his knee and the rest of the game was unplayable. An ambulance, gas and air, screaming and blood drained faces ensued.
Needless to say, the pre-arranged 'sandwiches and such' at West Yorkshire Sports Club was not as fun as it was designed to be.
Wakefield Baptist Church 2-6 Rotherham Elim
Yorvik Blades (York) 22.09.07
Second game of the season is another away game in York, this time to face the fearsome sounding Yorvik Blades. In reality, Yorvik Blades have always been a team that we have never quite beaten despite being evenly matched or, sometimes even, clearly better.
By half-time we're 1-0 down. However, following a fearsome head-of-department type telling off from Gary Stevens we make an incredible fight back.
Shortly into the second half wakefield pulled back the all important equaliser through James Walker, however the real action emerged about 5 minutes later when it was decided to bring on James Clark off the bench with only 30 minutes of play remaining would this make a differnce.
First of all he picks the ball up wide left jigs infield and pops a shot out which is saved by the keeper and parried across the face of the goal leaving Tom Winstanley the easiest of tap ins, 2-1.
Then again chasing down onto a ball down the left side of the box finds himself with an unbeknown amount of time and uses the time effectively to deliver an inch perfect cross to Tom Winstanley on the edge of the six yard box 3-1, 5 minutes later following a goal mouth scramble the ball finds itself at James Clarks feet who cooly slots home from 3 yards 4-1.
10 minutes to go and the ball is won by James Clark just inside the opponents half he lofts a ball high in the air over the defence Tom Winstanley brings the ball down with a deft touch and finishes from approximately 20 yds into the bottom near corner 5-1.
In the dying minutes we take our foot off the gas and allow Jorvik to steal a goal back but it is of little importance the damage has been done and we take 3 points on their turf job well done.
To top it off James Clark is nominated as Man of the Match having played a mere 30 minutes of the second half.
Yorvik Blades 2-5 Wakefield Baptist Church.
By half-time we're 1-0 down. However, following a fearsome head-of-department type telling off from Gary Stevens we make an incredible fight back.
Shortly into the second half wakefield pulled back the all important equaliser through James Walker, however the real action emerged about 5 minutes later when it was decided to bring on James Clark off the bench with only 30 minutes of play remaining would this make a differnce.
First of all he picks the ball up wide left jigs infield and pops a shot out which is saved by the keeper and parried across the face of the goal leaving Tom Winstanley the easiest of tap ins, 2-1.
Then again chasing down onto a ball down the left side of the box finds himself with an unbeknown amount of time and uses the time effectively to deliver an inch perfect cross to Tom Winstanley on the edge of the six yard box 3-1, 5 minutes later following a goal mouth scramble the ball finds itself at James Clarks feet who cooly slots home from 3 yards 4-1.
10 minutes to go and the ball is won by James Clark just inside the opponents half he lofts a ball high in the air over the defence Tom Winstanley brings the ball down with a deft touch and finishes from approximately 20 yds into the bottom near corner 5-1.
In the dying minutes we take our foot off the gas and allow Jorvik to steal a goal back but it is of little importance the damage has been done and we take 3 points on their turf job well done.
To top it off James Clark is nominated as Man of the Match having played a mere 30 minutes of the second half.
Yorvik Blades 2-5 Wakefield Baptist Church.
St Michael's (York) 15.09.07
The season kicked off with a trip North on the 15th September to play St Michael's.
There seemed to be a different and slightly unfamiliar feeling about our approach to this season, something like confidence. It may have had something to do with purely an opportunity to start afresh; it may have been having had a slight shift in personel over the summer; it could have been that at the end of the summer a very cobbled together version of us played and beat a team of 13 players (though they were mostly around the age of 16) in a very unorthodox friendly, or it could just have been that we were excited about playing again.
We arrive and warm up and realise that our first game is St Michael's third. The other thing to mention at this point is that our goalkeeper, Mark 'The Cat' Robinson is out due to an ackilies injury which will keep him at bay for a while yet, so in goal we have a rather brave but green outfield player, Richard 'I hope I can catch' Thornton. Kick off - and we cannot get to the ball let alone hang on to it, they win possesion of everything and then simply pass it, seemingly, through us. When half-time comes around we seem to have begun to have found a little something, we are 1-0 down and we see the potential to alter that (in our favour). We were right: our first goal of the season and it's a new boy, a defender no less, 'Dan Metcalf centre half'. He scored a very convicing header off a corner and we're level; 1-1.
The score doesn't stay this way for long though, and indeed, not long after that either, we found ourselves on the wrong end of 3-1. Not only this, but with twenty minutes remaining (by which time some of our lads who are a little bit shy of match fit are virtually stationary) two of our twelve players have to leave for a prior commitment. Mathematically that takes us from 11 on the field and one sub, to 10 men on the field.
This game is now, if it wasn't before, an uphill battle. Having been with this club from the start there's one strange thing i've noticed about it, that is that it seems to play better football when it is down to ten men. This was no less true on this occassion. With ten minutes remaining we took the scoreline on a wild ride to 3-2. Andy Amoss was able to capatilise, with a perfectly pitched lob, on a hard fought through-ball from skipper Danny Hayton.
Despite further wranglings and wishing, this was where the score remained. No points and a combination of frustration (that we could have done better) and satisfaction (that for a first game, against better opposition and with a replacement keeper and (almost) 10 men for a chunk of the game).
St Michael's 3-2 Wakefield Baptist Church.
There seemed to be a different and slightly unfamiliar feeling about our approach to this season, something like confidence. It may have had something to do with purely an opportunity to start afresh; it may have been having had a slight shift in personel over the summer; it could have been that at the end of the summer a very cobbled together version of us played and beat a team of 13 players (though they were mostly around the age of 16) in a very unorthodox friendly, or it could just have been that we were excited about playing again.
We arrive and warm up and realise that our first game is St Michael's third. The other thing to mention at this point is that our goalkeeper, Mark 'The Cat' Robinson is out due to an ackilies injury which will keep him at bay for a while yet, so in goal we have a rather brave but green outfield player, Richard 'I hope I can catch' Thornton. Kick off - and we cannot get to the ball let alone hang on to it, they win possesion of everything and then simply pass it, seemingly, through us. When half-time comes around we seem to have begun to have found a little something, we are 1-0 down and we see the potential to alter that (in our favour). We were right: our first goal of the season and it's a new boy, a defender no less, 'Dan Metcalf centre half'. He scored a very convicing header off a corner and we're level; 1-1.
The score doesn't stay this way for long though, and indeed, not long after that either, we found ourselves on the wrong end of 3-1. Not only this, but with twenty minutes remaining (by which time some of our lads who are a little bit shy of match fit are virtually stationary) two of our twelve players have to leave for a prior commitment. Mathematically that takes us from 11 on the field and one sub, to 10 men on the field.
This game is now, if it wasn't before, an uphill battle. Having been with this club from the start there's one strange thing i've noticed about it, that is that it seems to play better football when it is down to ten men. This was no less true on this occassion. With ten minutes remaining we took the scoreline on a wild ride to 3-2. Andy Amoss was able to capatilise, with a perfectly pitched lob, on a hard fought through-ball from skipper Danny Hayton.
Despite further wranglings and wishing, this was where the score remained. No points and a combination of frustration (that we could have done better) and satisfaction (that for a first game, against better opposition and with a replacement keeper and (almost) 10 men for a chunk of the game).
St Michael's 3-2 Wakefield Baptist Church.
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